Research

The SAFEROAD Project contributes to the new body of emerging research in the field of Road Ecology.

According to the research agenda on Road Ecology (The Rauischholzhausen Agenda for Road Ecology, Roedenbeck et.al., 2007), key questions which researchers attempt to answer are:

Under what circumstances do roads affect wildlife population persistence?

What is the relative importance of road effects vs. other effects on wildlife population persistence? Under what circumstances can road effects be mitigated?

What is the relative importance of the different mechanisms by which roads affect wildlife population persistence?

Under what circumstances do road networks affect wildlife population persistence at the landscape scale?

SAFEROAD project addresses these questions via compiling research results on the used and potentially new mitigation measures of roads on wildlife, methodologies for estimating cost-effectiveness of mitigation mesures and monitoring process.

Read more about the Road Ecology Research Agenda:

"Mobility of people and goods is an essential component of the modern world, with its emphasis on globalization and economic opportunity. However, the transportation infrastructure that enhances connectivity among human settlements often results in decreased connectivity among remaining natural habitats and wildlife populations. It is estimated that the transportation infrastructure affects at least 19% of the conterminous land area of the United States (Forman 2000) and 20% of the Netherlands (Reijnen et al. 1995). Areas larger than 100 km² that were unfragmented by roads decreased from 22% to 14% of the total land coverage of the old West German states between 1977 and 1998 (Bundesamt für Naturschutz 1999), and this trend is very likely to continue in most parts of the world (e.g., NRTF 1997)...."